Monthly Archives: October 2011

Crossroads GPS, the Karl Rove-backed independent “Super PAC” that will spend an obscene amount of money on behalf of Republican candidates over the next year, is already blanketing seemingly random congressional districts with attack ads simply because it can.

October 27, 2011- Everyone is used to seeing a flood of political advertising, whether they are vicious attack ads or saccharine puff pieces, in the months before an election. Soon, the public may get a huge amount of information about the source and cost of all of those advertisements in a way that has never been done before.

The Federal Communications Commission held a meeting on Wednesday during which they promised to move forward in the process to enact rules governing the online disclosure of broadcasters' political files. The move comes as interest and concerns rise about the increase in political spending by outside groups, with the funding sources often remaining undisclosed, after the Supreme Court opened the door in January 2010 to unlimited independent spending by corporations and unions in the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling.

October 26, 2011- The backlash against the Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission continues to grow as a trio of progressive media icons have launched a new effort to remove corporate money from elections.

The We the People Campaign began on Tuesday, with The Nation editor Katrina vanden Heuvel, former Texas Agriculture Commissioner Jim Hightower and former Mother Jones publisher Jay Harris in charge of the effort to bring progressive media and advocacy groups together.

"It really came out of conversations just over a year ago," Hightower said. "Katrina, Jay and I had long been talking to progressive groups, particularly progressive media, about the need to consider a little bit of coordination and cooperation on big topics. … So we decided to do it by focusing on Citizens United, a constitutional amendment and various ways to get around the corporate power dominating our politics."

October 10, 2011- Karl Rove’s team and the Koch brothers’ operatives quietly coordinated millions of dollars in political spending in 2010, but that alliance, which has flown largely under the radar, is showing signs of fraying.

And with each network planning to dwarf its 2010 effort, Republicans worry that the emerging rivalry between the two deepest-pocketed camps in the conservative movement could undercut their party’s chances of taking the Senate and White House in 2012.

October 8, 2011- Stephen Colbert is continuing to move the line on what a satirical talk show host can do in his latest war of words with Karl Rove and his lawyers.

After a September 29 episode where Colbert outlined how Rove has the ability to "launder money" from one Super PAC to another, Rove's lawyers sent the host a strongly worded email, saying that any innuendo that Rove's PACs had engaged in anything shadowy could easily be dismissed.

And in classic fashion, Colbert responded by reading the email on Thursday night's show and issuing a fake apology to Rove, vis-á-vis a ham wearing glasses.

Surreal, edgy, ambitious, and important… the segment is "The Colbert Report" at its very best.

Today the Glitterati, a group of activists who have become infamous for glitter bombing anti-gay politicians, struck again.

This time their victims were Karl Rove, who was doing a book signing at the Minnesota Faith and Freedom Strategy Session in Bloomington, Minnesota, and Congressman Erik Paulsen (R-MN) who was receiving a “Friend of the Family” award for his efforts to place a constitution amendment to ban marriages for same-sex couples on the ballot in Minnesota for 2012.

Nick Espinosa, who invented the glitter bomb and used it against Newt Gingrich at a book signing back in May, told The Huffington Post that Ben Egerman bombed Rove (see video above) and was then detained by the police.

September 28, 2011- A potential candidate who waits too long to launch a presidential run will be too far behind in the race to raise the necessary dollars — at least, that's been the conventional thinking about presidential campaigns over the past decade. But this election cycle has changed that thinking for a few reasons. One is the advent of super PACs.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, for example, has kept the political world guessing this week about whether he will run for president. Whatever he decides, Christie and other potential Republican candidates have been able to flirt with a run at such a late date in part because the emergence of super PACs has made the task of quickly accumulating funds easier.

October 3, 2011- In 2012, two tidal waves will reconfigure the American electoral system and the news media that cover it. A tsunami made of money will buoy up the structure of entrenched political power, while a huge wave of personal technology will disrupt it.